Chocolate-Mint Creams--Easy Sunday Dessert

Last week, while cleaning my food pantry, I found in different boxes several pieces of leftover, quality chocolate, mostly Belgian. There were pieces of dark bitter and milk chocolate and a little bit of white chocolate. It turned out I had quite a lot, almost half a pound of chocolate--perfect amount for chocolate-mint cream that I always wanted to try.

I imagined that this dessert would be delicious, but I was even more sure that it would be pretty caloric and rather irresistible. I decided to make it over the weekend when my son had his friends over, so the dessert did not last for too long.

The Italian recipe I had for this dessert calls for bitter sweet chocolate. But since I am a lover of milk chocolate only, this leftover mixture worked better for me. I just cut the amount of sugar used in the recipe. Also, at my son's request, I added a little bit of mint extract to make it more aromatic. It is probably one of the easiest chocolate treats that can make a wonderful last minute weekend desert.



Chocolate-Mint Creams
(Makes 6 portions)

Ingredients:
1/2 pound of dark bitter chocolate chopped into small pieces,
1 cup of half-and-half,
3 tbsp sugar (add only 1 tbsp if you use milk chocolate),
3 egg yolks,
1 tsp peppermint extract,
1/2 whipped cream for decoration

Preparation:
1. Heat the half-and-half in a medium pot until it almost boils. Take it from the heat and add chopped chocolate. Mix well until the chocolate melts completely.
2. In a medium bowl beat yolks and sugar until fluffy. Add mint extract and beat again.
3. Slowly add half of the chocolate to the eggs and mix. Pour the egg mixture to the remaining chocolate in the pot. Return to the heat and simmer gently for about 3 minutes.



4. Pour the chocolate to the small serving bowl and chill for 4 hours. Serve cold with whipped cream.

Torta Caprese--Rich Chocolate Almond Torte

I almost forgot about this delightful cake until my recent visit to Rome. And there I found it displayed in pastry shops and on the menu of restaurants, next to such classic desserts as tiramisu or semifreddo. I also had a chance to try a wonderful home-made torta caprese at a dinner I was invited to by my friend's family.

So today, for Valentine's Day which is all about chocolate treats, I share a recipe for torta caprese, which in essence is a very simple cake but its secret is that it must be made of best quality delicious ingredients.

Most often I make a traditional, most neutral, version of it with ground almonds. However, my favorite torta caprese is made with hazelnuts, especially those from Oregon, which give the cake that special gianduja flavor. Almonds can also be replaced by walnuts. And I recently bought ground cashews to experiment with them next time.

Torta caprese is made without flour (as the ground nuts make up for it entirely) so it is a gluten-free dessert. It is quite rich and moist but I add also some liqueur which gave it an extra flavor and moisture.

Torta caprese can be served with a scoop of good gelato or topped with a dollop of crème fraîche or whipped cream. Anyway, in whatever variation it is served, there is no one, and particularly no true chocolate lover, who will resist a piece of torta caprese.

Torta Caprese

Ingredients:
6 eggs, separated, preferably organic,
6 oz bittersweet good quality (preferably, Belgian) chocolate, broken in small pieces,
1 stick ( 1/2 cup) unsalted butter, plus extra tsp for the form,
3/4 cup sugar,
1 and 1/2 cup blanched and ground almonds (hazelnuts or walnuts),
2 tbsp Amaretto Liqueur, Frangelico, or Grand Marnier,
1 tbsp vanilla,
pinch of salt,
confectioners sugar for dusting.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. prepare a baking 9.5-inch baking form with high, removable walls. Cut out a round piece of waxed paper to the size of the form and place it at the bottom of the form. Grease it with a tsp of butter.
2. Place chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Add butter cut into small pieces and melt either on top of a pot with steaming water or in a microwave oven. If you use a microwave oven, first run it for 30 seconds, then mix chocolate. Repeat again 3-4 times running the microwave oven for no longer than 15-20 seconds at a time, stirring in between with a spatula, until chocolate and butter make a smooth cream. Add vanilla and liqueur to the chocolate cream.

3. In a standing mixer, beat egg yolks with sugar until pale. Add melted chocolate and mix. Sift in ground almonds and mix gently again.
4. In a separate bowl, beat whites of eggs with salt until stiff. Fold the whites into the chocolate batter gently using a spatula. Transfer the batter to the baking form. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is set. Cool, dust the top with confectioners sugar, and serve with crème fraîche or vanilla gelato.

Hazelnut and Nutella Semifreddos--To Celebrate the 4th of July

Fourth of July is a very special day to me. And not because it is a national holiday but because it is Max's, my older son's birthday. The whole nation celebrates that day with him and he gets the most wonderful fireworks.

Almost each year we go to or organise ourselves a Fourth of July party, which culminates in admiring the fireworks sparkling over the Washington Capitol. I also typically make his birthday cake decorated with fruits in national colors--blueberries and raspberries. I like to make that cake as it is very light and great for this usually very hot day.

But Max is not a big fun of cakes and he never tastes it except for some of the fruits. So this year I decided to make something just for him--a dessert with Nutella, the ingredient that he loves most. I spotted that recipe in More magazine. I thought that combining Nutella in the dessert that reminds chocolate ice cream, which he likes a lot, would be a perfect. And on top of that it would be, half-frozen, as the name suggests--a perfect dessert for the hot days we experience.

Hazelnut and Nutella Semifreddo

Ingredients for the dessert:
1 jar (13-oz) of Nutella spread,
1/2 cup whole milk,
2 tbsp hazelnut liqueur (I used Frangelico),
1 tsp vanilla extract,
1/4 tsp salt,
2 cups heavy whipping cream.

Ingredients for the chocolate sauce:
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped,
1/4 cup cold water,
1/4 cup sugar,
1/4 cup light corn syrup,
1/ 2 tsp vanilla extract.

Preparation:
1. Heat a heavy duty frying pan and roast hazelnuts turning them constantly, until their skins become burned. Cool them down and with hands remove the burned skin.

2. Line the 12-muffin tin cups with aluminium cupcake foil liners.
3. Place Nutella in a food processor, add milk, liqueur, salt and vanilla and run it until the mix becomes smooth. Add 2/3 of hazelnuts and pulse until they become crushed into very small pieces.
4. In a large bowl beat heavy whipping cream until almost stiff. Fold it in the Nutella mixture in three portions.

5. Fill up the muffin cups and decorate with the remaining hazelnuts on top.

6. Freeze for 4-6 hours, until they are very firm. Remove frozen desserts together with the aluminium liners from the muffin tin and place in a large Ziploc bag. You can store them like that for up to two weeks.
7. To make the chocolate sauce combine water, sugar, corn syrup in a small pan and stir over the medium heat until the chocolate melts and the sauce becomes smooth. Cool down slightly and add vanilla. Cool completely and transfer to a small jar until it will be used.
8. Shorty before serving spread the chocolate sauce at the bottom of each serving plate. Remove semifreddos form the freezer and place them on the plates. Let them soften for 5-10 minutes and serve.